Moral Theories of Kalām in The Context of Goodness-Evil (Ḥusun-Kubuḥ)

The main research area of kalām science: Existence, knowledge and value. In this context, God-universe, God-human, human-nature and other creatures and human-human connection are important. Establishing the aforementioned contacts depends on resolving the issue of good (ḥusun)-evil (kubuḥ). The Good-evil problem is to investigate the origin and nature of morality. On the basis of morality, there are voluntary and free actions of the subject. Values should be taken into the research field by establishing a close relationship between will and action. Searching for origins in values is to make it functional. In other words, in order to transfer theoretical values to practical values, the origin of the values must be found. As a result of the search of origins in values, we will encounter two theories subjective and objective values. Subjective values theory depends on the subject. The theory of objective values is independent of the subject. It is al-Ashʿarī who adopts the first approach in theological (kalām) thought. The second one is adopted by Muʿtazila. The source of moral values in the Ashʿarīte doctrine is the subject God. In this approach, the right of divine power and divine wisdom are not given the same proportion. However, it is necessary to think separately on the fact that all subject-dependent issues are always variable. The equalization of the Ashʿarī system with the relativity current, which maintains that God, who gives existence and determines existence, also determines morality, should also be questioned.

Medieval Scientific Policy in Medicine, Measuring Realism in Prophet Medicine

In dark days of Europe, which was a barren science, you saw the world through superstitions of alchemy and methods based on ignorance and speculation. A current of science emerged in medieval world that provided a new definition of science. In modern definition of science, it is knowledge of fixed truths of nature, man and society, which you have acquired with the tools of empirical intellect and by observation and induction, and which have been useful for ensuring the welfare and security of human beings. The background of this scientific current is call to reason, realism and philosophy. The intellect is source of knowledge of world, and the dimensions of the universe are based on principles of philosophy and method of realism. Sarton, leader of historiography of science in middle Ages, introduced Muslims as leaders of science in middle Ages. A collection of health, food, medicine and theoretical treatments is attributed to Muhammad, which has been published under the title of Prophetic Medicine. Ibn Khaldu criticized medicine of Prophet eight hundred years ago. he writes that Prophet was not a physician and a specialist in worldly affairs, and that use of Prophet's medicine does not require observance of status of prophethood The hypothesis of the present study is that despite Ibn Khaldun's criticism, the realism of the Prophet's medical works shows that Prophet's medicine needs new reflection and study, and a special type of medicine is based on trust in divine wisdom in creating an intelligent system between disease and medicine in nature. The present study has analyzed and explained realism in Prophet's medical words about fenugreek and has shown and proved it according to modern medical data. The Prophet issued a general decree regarding fenugreek and said; Hundreds of new laboratory and clinical research in medicine, veterinary medicine, agriculture, biology show general effectiveness of fenugreek in maintaining human health, livestock, nature and environment, and fenugreek is at heart of biology research, which Proves realism of comprehensive speech of Prophet.

Moderation, Self-Reflection, Evil

This chapter argues that the book of Ecclesiastes helps Melville fathom the limits of wisdom philosophy. Ecclesiastes stresses the need to temper the idealism that underpins the perennial search for divine wisdom with the expediencies of daily life in the world. It is a meta-text that reflects critically on the wisdom project. Having found American culture to be fundamentally opposed to wisdom axioms (cf. Chapter 2), Melville, as this chapter shows, begins to push back against some of the skepticism in Solomon’s “despondent philosophy,” while maintaining the fundamental usefulness of its contemplative outlook on life. The works covered here—Redburn, Moby-Dick, Pierre, and the poetry collection Battle-Pieces—all depict individuals caught in the hermeneutical conundrum of applying wisdom teachings to the situations they find themselves in. Melville ultimately winds up embracing the wisdom axiom of moderation through contemplative discernment.

Lurking Lions and Hidden Herds: Concealed Wisdom in the Hebrew Bible

This article presents evidence for a previously unrecognized literary device in the Book of Proverbs, in which texts that cluster references to animals also contain additional paronomastic allusions to animals. This device accords with the proverbs’ instruction to search for hidden knowledge, and resonates with their emphasis on the study of wild animals as a source of divine wisdom. The device also appears in psalms and prophecies, where it generally entails references to domesticated animals; here, the function appears to be rhetorical or performative. These groupings of concealed allusions to animals also add to the growing number of examples of the textual device of clustering.

A pause with the Verses of Bahrain in The Holy Quran: وقفة مع آيات البحرين في القرآن الكريم

The essence of this topic is the conversation about (The Verses of Bahrain) mentioned in the Book of God Almighty, as these verses are mentioned five times in the Qur’an. The honorable one, and that is why this research was the subject of five investigations. The researcher spoke in those investigations about the verses in which the word (Bahrain) came in Deuteronomy, The researcher dealt with the many benefits and blessings of these seas, as their fresh and salty waters have many benefits, and countless and countless goodies, and there is the great divine wisdom in the isthmus and the interdicted stone, which was mentioned in those verses, and the differences of scholars in the past and present in that barrier, and how modern science has interpreted that. In the course of the research, the researcher mentioned the living creatures that live inside these seas, as well as extracting pearls and coral from the depths of these vast oceans, and seeing the large ships that pierce the water in an enormous way back and forth, all with the power of God Almighty. As for the method and nature of the study, it is represented in the inductive analytical method, by collecting the verses in question, explaining and interpreting them according to the pleasure of the Almighty God from ancient and modern sources, and this method is what researchers follow in such research. The most important results of this research can be summarized as follows: The seas have a great variety of importance and that is why they took a good space from the Holy Book. And that the Signs of the Sea include a scientific miracle that modern science recently discovered. That the Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, did not explain such verses, because the time has not yet come for them. That such verses clearly indicate the greatness and enormous power of God.

“Philosopher” and “Philosophy” in Kyivan Rus’ Written Sources: of the 11-14th centuries. The Need for a new Asking of the “Old” Question

The author justifies the need to return to an analysis of the meaning of such words as “philosophy” and “philosopher” in the Kyivan Rus’ written sources of the 11th–14th centuries. In the author’s view, this is explained not only by the inaccuracies the earlier research committed but also by the necessity to take contemporary achievements of Byzantine philosophical historiography into account. The author concludes that the preserved Kyivan Rus’ written sources reflect certain Byzantine interpretations of the words “philosopher” and “philosophy” as understood within particular interpretive frameworks: philosophy may refer to a specifically “Christian” or “external” philosophy, presuppose rational or mystical comprehension of divine wisdom, become verbalized or not. Some sources probably espouse an understanding of philosophy as a practice of true life. The word “philosopher” had different connotations, as well. It referred to advisers or officeholders at the court of the Byzantine emperor, wise princes, church intellectuals, connoisseurs of biblical books, etc. The author invalidates the idea that in Kyivan Rus’, there existed a holistic understanding of philosophy and philosophers. Instead, one should interpret these words as having a limited plurality of meanings.

On forms of legal consciousness: an example of one analysis

The article raises the question of the possibility of reconstructing the legal consciousness of one culture and era in the categories and concepts of another. The subject of analysis is the plot of a medieval fairy tale from the collection Arabian Nights. Most European researchers of modern Europe perceive the plot of this story as a demonstration of the blatant injustice and corruption that reigned in Egypt during the Mamluk sultanate. At the same time this story appears completely different when correlated with the principles and norms of Muslim law. It tells how divine wisdom guides the people’s actions without them knowing, establishing order and justice in society. Fairy tales reveal the relationship between the upper world and the earth one, testify to the divine care for the daily life of people.

Prefiguration, Apocalypse, Tragedy: Three Trajectories of Patristic Interpretation of the Adamic Fall

This essay examines three major (and to some degree overlapping) trajectories of patristic interpretation of the Adamic Fall in Genesis 3, all of which have considerable representation in early Christian writers. Following on the Pauline treatment of Adam especially in Romans 5, a first interpretive trajectory sketches the Fall principally as a prefigurative event, a lapse that, modeled in the protoplasts Adam and Eve, human beings have continued to imitate and prolong transgenerationally. A second whole interpretive approach interprets it as an “apocalyptic” event within the larger divine economy, taking account of questions of theodicy and divine wisdom, of how allegedly perfect creatures could fall in the first place, and of the ontological and moral repercussions of the Fall for the human race. Still a third trajectory enhances the “dramatic” dimension of the Fall and plays up the features of tragedy which characterize the protoplasts’ fateful miscalculation and the divine intervention to save the day. This essay seeks to demonstrate the interpretive latitude within all three trajectories, which, though not necessarily exhaustive, are certainly representative in late ancient and early medieval Christianity.

The Theological Scope of Early Christian Tragical Vision

This last full chapter confirms, first of all, that tragical vision and mimesis constituted a theological artform in early Christian literature, whereby literary, rhetorical, and dramatic artistry were vital to the eminently theological interests of patristic tragical visionaries and not mere artifices. The “theodramatic” interpretive paradigm of the modern theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar is introduced as a lens through which to reevaluate the compatibility of theology and tragedy in early Christian authors. Other modern Christian tragical visionaries besides Balthasar are also brought into “conversation” with patristic interpreters of the tragic character of creaturely existence, in an effort to demonstrate the theological intelligence and accountability of early Christian tragical mimesis in its various forms, and to highlight the criteria by which “the tragic” has come to be identified in the Christian tradition. It is shown that patristic interpreters often played up human experience of intractable evil and “fateful” suffering in order, paradoxically, to enhance the depths of the divine wisdom and providence operative in creation. Tragical mimesis ultimately integrated “dark” comedy in dramatizing the “folly” of the economy of salvation.